Russian News Editor Fired Over Ukrainian Nationalist Interview

MOSCOW—The long-serving chief editor of respected Russian news site Lenta.ru was abruptly fired Wednesday and replaced with the editor of a pro-Kremlin website, in what journalists and media analysts say is the latest sign of tightening control over media.

The ouster of Galina Timchenko, who had worked as chief editor for a decade, came a day after the website was warned by authorities for publishing an article that contained a link to an interview with a Ukrainian nationalist leader accused by Moscow of extremism.

Dmytro Yarosh, head of Ukrainian far-right nationalist organization Right Sector, speaks to journalists during a press conference in Kiev. An interview with Mr. Yarosh on the Russian news site Lenta.ru has led to the ouster of the site’s chief editor Galina Timchenko.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

In a terse statement, Lenta.ru said its billionaire owner, Alexander Mamut, had dismissed Ms. Timchenko and appointed Alexei Goreslavsky on Wednesday, without elaborating. Mr. Mamut’s Afisha-Rambler-SUP Media Holding could not be reached for further comment. Mr. Goreslavsky joined the media company as deputy communications director in 2013.

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Ms. Timchenko’s dismissal provoked a flurry of resignations among the website’s staff, many of whom posted comments on social networks voicing their dissatisfaction over the decision and praising her qualities as a journalist.

In a statement signed by over 60 Lenta.ru journalists and posted on the site, they called her removal “direct pressure” on the news site’s editorial policy and staff.

Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE’s representative on media freedom, called the firing a “clear sign” of censorship and government pressure.

“Well, now this is really it. Thank you, it was very interesting,” Ms. Timchenko wrote on her Facebook page. Under her leadership, Lenta.ru has become one of the country’s most-popular and most-cited websites.

Russia’s media landscape has become increasingly dominated by state-run or Kremlin-friendly outlets in recent months.

Independent Russian news channel Dozhd, or Rain, was dropped by several cable TV providers earlier this year after it published a poll asking whether defending St. Petersburg during World War II, then known as Leningrad, was worth the human cost. The owners say the cutoff has decimated its revenues and pushed it to the edge of closure.

In mid-February state media giant Gazprom-Media Holding, which owns independent radio station Ekho Moskvy, replaced the station’s chief executive, a step its chief editor publicly condemned as an attempt to pressure and influence its editorial policy.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti was abruptly liquidated in mid-December and had its long-standing editor Svetlana Mironyuk replaced by Dmitry Kiselyov, a fiery pro-Kremlin news anchor widely known for his anti-Western and antigay remarks.

Lenta.ru has been providing an alternative point of view on recent events in Ukraine that has differed from those of Russian state media outlets. On Monday, it published a story with a link to an interview with Dmytro Yarosh, leader of Ukraine’s Right Sector movement, who is regularly portrayed as a fascist and a neo-Nazi by Kremlin-controlled media.

On Wednesday Russian state communications regulator Roskomnadzor issued the website a warning for distributing extremist materials, citing the interview with Mr. Yarosh. A Moscow court ordered Mr. Yarosh’s arrest in absentia Wednesday for instigating extremism. He had allegedly asked Chechen terrorist Doku Umarov to support Ukraine over social media, an allegation he denied saying his account had been hacked. Lenta.ru responded by removing the hyperlink to the interview from its website. Roskomnadzor spokesman said the regulator had no other complaints against the news site, as it had acquiesced to its demands.

(An earlier version of the post erroneously said in the headline that the editor interviewed the Ukrainian nationalist. The editor published an article that contained a link to the interview. The same error was repeated in the second and 12th paragraphs)

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